What the difference between Jack Daniels and the traditional Scottish-style whiskey?
Scotch whiskey uses malted barley grains (grains that have been allowed to sprout). They usually roll moistened barley onto a concrete floor in a smoke house and then smolder peat to dry out the barley. This is where scotch gets its smoky flavor. The barley is then mixed with a couple other grains (depending on the brand) and ground into a mash. Water is added and this is allowed to ferment. It is then distilled and put into oak barrels to age. Caramel is sometimes added for color. Bourbon whiskey is made from a mash of mostly corn or rye, plus a couple other grains (again, depending on the brand). American bourbon makers use what’s called a sour mash, where they add some of the fermented mash from a previous batch to the new batch. This is done to make the flavor more consistent from batch to batch. Bourbon also uses water from the Bourbon river in Kentucky and part of western Tennessee. This is a limestone bedded river that naturally filters out all the iron in the water, which is on
